


Long Distance Siblings

by ziazippy5379



Category: Leverage, The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: Childhood Friends, Crossover, Found Family, Gen, More characters to be added, Some angst, They Are Nerds Together, mostly happy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-08
Updated: 2020-05-21
Packaged: 2020-08-16 02:47:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20169892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ziazippy5379/pseuds/ziazippy5379
Summary: Alec keeps running into Cassandra throughout their childhood. They become closer every time but always seem to lose each other.





	1. Age 5

**Author's Note:**

> This started out as being inspired by an ask from writerproblem193 to distinctivelibrarians over on tumblr. It kinda spiraled out of control from there. The basis of that ask will pop up in the later chapters of this.
> 
> Hardison has a bunch of foster siblings in this so I will include their names and ages compared to Hardison's at the beginning of each chapter.
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sissy is 11 years older  
Anna is 7 years older  
Danny is 4 years older

Alec walked down the hospital hall clutching Nana’s hand. They were there to visit his foster sister Sissy. All the kids had to take turns visiting with Nana since Sissy couldn’t handle more at a time. She was really sick with some sort of cancer that nobody would explain to Alec. They said he was too young to understand, even though he was five years old and about to start kindergarten. He thought he definitely old enough to understand. He was already better than everyone at using the computer and he was better at Danny’s math homework than he was. And Danny was going into fourth grade.

Nana had taken him to Sissy’s room first but she wasn’t there. But one of the nurses had told them that she was in the activity room with some of the other kids. So, that’s where they were heading.

Alec didn’t much like visiting the hospital. He thought it was like the doctor but worse. The only people he got to see more than once were the ones that just kept getting sicker. Plus Sissy was the oldest of his foster siblings, being about to start eleventh grade, and they didn’t get along very well. But Alec would never say that to Nana. He came and sat quietly while Sissy and Nana talked.

They got to the activity room and saw Sissy. She was sitting at a table with some older kids that looked way closer to her in age than to Alec. That was never fun for him. Older kids tended to tease him for being smart. But Nana always made them stop. And she said that his brain was a wonderful gift and he should be proud of it.

There were kids in the room that were closer to him in age but he knew he shouldn’t leave Nana since they were here for Sissy. They sat at the table even though there wasn’t really room. Alec stayed quiet while Nana talked with Sissy and the other kids. He also pulled out the book of math problems that one of their neighbors had gotten him for his birthday. It had been one of his favorite presents. Nana had let him bring it because she said he was less likely to find trouble with it.

So he sat there working on it until one of the volunteers stopped by the table.

“If you want you can go join some of the kids closer to your age,” she said. “It’s not uncommon for younger siblings to interact with younger kinds in here.”

The last part was directed at Nana, who gave a nod and smile to Alec. He jumped up with his book and followed the volunteer's gesture to where there were a few tables with kids his age. Most of them already had more than one kid at them except for one. That table had one little girl with bright red hair sitting at it. He went over to her because he knew how it felt to sit alone.

“Can I sit with you?” he asked. He didn’t want to invade her space. And Nana taught him to be polite.

She jumped and gave him a surprised look before answering him.

  
“Yes,” she said hesitantly.

Alec sat down across from her and set his book on the table. The girl had already gone back to her drawing. It was a bunch of boxes with a spiral going through them. He wanted to ask about it but he hadn’t introduced himself. So, he did.

“I’m Alec.”

The girl looked up even more startled than the first time he had spoken.

“I’m Cassandra,” she replied.

“That’s a nice name. And drawing. What is it?” he said very quickly.

Cassandra looked like she didn’t want to tell him what her drawing was but as he was about to tell her that she didn’t need to tell him she spoke.

“It’s a Fibonacci spiral. A visual image of the Fibonacci sequence. It’s a math thing.”

Alec hadn't thought that she could look more nervous but he was wrong. Alec knew that fear from the big kids that sometimes hung around with Sissy and Danny. Anna never brought someone back when they were mean to him.

“That’s really cool!” he exclaimed. “I didn’t know that there were fun ways to draw fancy math. I just have graphs and tables.”

There was another shocked look on Cassandra’s face for a moment before a big smile broke out.

“Yeah! There’s lots of them. I can’t really draw others but I can tell you about them.”

They spent the next while talking about all the different math things that they knew. At one point Nana came by to check on him. She had to go talk with some hospital people and wanted to make sure he was okay. The people in the activity room had agreed to let him stay while she did. He could tell from the looks on some of their faces that they wanted him to stay. It was probably because of Cassandra.

A bit later Cassandra stopped what she was saying and looked at Alec.

“Why are you here?” she asked.

“Visiting with my sister,” he replied.

“Oh,” she said, “I’m sick. But they said I’m getting better. They said I will get to go home next week.”

“That’s good right?” Alec asked. He was confused since she sounded sad that she was getting to go home.

“Yes,” she said and then changed the topic, “Is your sister going to be okay?”

“I don’t know. Nobody will even tell me what’s wrong with her,” he said. “It’s not fair. She’s my sister.”

“Maybe we can find out.”

Alec looked at her in surprise.

“How? Nobody’s gonna tell us anything.”

Cassandra had the same look on her face as Danny always did when he was going to do something that he wasn’t supposed to.

“All of that stuff is on the computers,” she said but then her face fell. “But I don’t know how to access any of it.”

“I’m good with computers. I can find it.”

Her face brightened again.

“Great! I know where a computer is.”

They waited until the volunteers were occupied with the other kids before they snuck out. Cassandra led him by his hand to a desk with a computer is a hard-to-see corner. Alec had to kneel on the chair in order to reach the computer. He tried to look for the information on Sissy but the screens were unfamiliar. And he had to figure them out.

“What do you two think you’re doing?” a voice came from behind them.

They both startled and turned around to see a doctor in a white coat behind them. Neither of them spoke for a minute and the doctor just sighed. She told them to follow her and before they got far one of the volunteers ran into them.

“Where on Earth did you two sneak off to?” she demanded.

“They were trying to do something on one of the computers. Didn’t get anywhere on it though,” the doctor said. “I take it you’re in charge of them?”

“Yes, and I will make sure they don’t get into any more mischief. Come on you two.”

They went back to the activity room and then a nurse came to take Cassandra back to her room. Alec just got sat at a table to wait for Nana to come back. When she did the volunteer explained what had happened and Nana gave him a look. She waited until they were on their way back home to bring it up.

“What exactly were you trying to do?” she asked him.

Alec started crying.

“I just wanted to know what was wrong with Sissy and if she is going to be okay. No one will tell me and I’m scared.”

Nana’s face immediately softened. Then she explained Sissy’s illness and the fact that she had gone to talk with the doctors about when she would be coming home. Which would be in a few weeks. Then she scolded him for trying to break into the hospital’s computer.

Alec hoped that he would get to see Cassandra again.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm already hard at work on the second chapter of this and hope to have the whole story done and posted before the end of the month.
> 
> I hope y'all like my take on tiny Hardison and Cassandra. They are just really cute and fun to write.


	2. Age 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Josh and Jane are twins and 7 years younger
> 
> Enjoy!

“Can you just sit still for five minutes?” Danny exclaimed.

“Leave him alone. He’s excited,” Anna said.

“You’re not the one stuck next to him,” was Danny’s reply.

Danny had a point. He and Alec were sharing the back seat of Nana’s minivan since the twins both had to be in their car seats which only fit in the middle row. Anna got to sit in the front because she was the oldest.

They were on the way to drop Alec off at Space Camp. He had won a free week at a science fair and couldn’t contain his excitement. It was the first time he had won and the first time he got to go to a sleep away camp. They had been in the car for an hour but Nana said they were almost there.

“Look! There’s the sign,” Anna said.

Alec plastered himself against the window to look at it. It was shaped like a cartoon rocket and had the name of the camp on it in big letters.

They pulled into the parking lot and Alec tried to be patient while Nana and Anna helped the twins out. As soon as he could, he jumped out of the car and to the back to get his bag.

After getting everything that they needed to get out of the car, they went over to the check-in line. There were only a couple of families in front of them so it only took a couple of minutes to get to the front and check Alec in. Goodbyes with Nana and his siblings took longer. Josh and Jane were especially hard to say goodbye to since they were having trouble understanding it would only be for a week.

Once they had finally finished Alec got to go into the main camp area and wait with the rest of the kids who had arrived. Once everyone was there the groups would all go their separate ways to start the week.

Alec talked with some of the other kids that were about his age. The camp went from second to eighth grade so there was a wide variety of ages. He quickly realized that while all of them had the same great love of science and space, he was more advanced than a lot of them. He hoped that they would all be able to see past that.

There were more kids than Alec could have possibly seen before the counselors called them all together. 

“Welcome to this week’s camp for rocket propulsion and navigation. Now we are splitting you into three groups, to make sure that everyone will be able to do all of the activities. Each pair of counselors will call their campers and you will go with them when you hear your name,” one of the counselors said.

Then they proceeded to call them off. Alec wasn’t in the first group. They began to call the second group. It was done in alphabetical order so Alec knew he would be near the beginning if it would be him.

“Cassandra Cillian,” called the counselor.

Out of the crowd a small girl bounced out lugging a bag that was nearly as big as she was. She had bright red hair. Alec was astonished. How many red haired science lovers named Cassandra could there be in the area? A lot, Alec knew but he couldn’t help but hope this was the same Cassandra that he got into trouble with years ago.

“Alec Hardison.”

Hearing his name called Alec grabbed his bag and went over to the growing group that was now his. He stood next to Cassandra and tried to figure out what to say. Before he could say anything she spoke.

“What part of this week are you looking forward to most?” she asked.

“Getting to use the navigation computers. Even if they are really simple ones,” he answered. “What about you?”

“The rocket contest!” she exclaimed.

The counselor not calling names came over to them and handed them nametags to wear. After the whole group had gotten their tags they were led to the cabins where they would be sleeping. Since it was fairly close to dinner they were left to get their beds organized until then.

At dinner Alec found Cassandra and sat next to her. He still wasn’t completely sure if it was her so he had to ask.

“Did you get in trouble at a hospital for trying to break into a computer?”

“Yes! I thought it was you too but I didn’t want to bring it up just in case,” she said with a bright smile.

“I was nervous but I had to know.”

They fell into a conversation about their schools and how they both had to do extra math with the higher grades or on their own. The conversation quickly went from school to all the math that they had been researching about space travel.

\---

The week went way quicker than either Alec or Cassandra wanted it to. Before they knew it was the last day when the families came to see what the kids had done over the week and to pick them up. There would be demonstrations of the experiments and campers would get to present their other projects to their families if they chose.

The counselors had figured out very quickly that Alec and Cassandra worked well together and that when paired up they didn’t get bored when they finished an experiment or project. So, all of their projects were done together including usually solo ones. They also were the only pair in the demonstrations since keeping them out of trouble was a priority.

Their camp session was the next one to go on and Alec and Cassandra would be going after the other two groups that made it up. They were waiting somewhat patiently for the groups before them to finish so they could go.

“Are you sure that we should go through with our modifications?” Alec whispered urgently.

“Yes! We couldn’t leave them out anyway,” Cassandra replied in the same hushed tone.

“Wait I thought they were wired through a different control. Are they not anymore?”

“Remember we had to wire it in to the main control to fit the last panel on.”

“Right.”

“Okay you two, you’re on after this group. Are you ready?” their counselor asked.

“Yes!” Cassandra told her.

There were mainly the families of the ten campers in their group sitting in the presentation area along with the campers who had not yet presented. There were some who had stayed after to see the rest and their families with them.

Alec carried the rocket portion of their project out to the testing area while Cassandra carried the control part. They set it up and gave a short talk about what they were doing. Since multiple other groups had already show the same rocket off they didn’t feel the need to go through the whole thing again.

They set off the launch sequence and backed away to a safe distance. When the countdown ended the rocket launched. And there was blue everywhere.

“What did you do?” their counselor exclaimed running up to them.

“Well there was some paint,” started Cassandra.

“And we saw there was some room on the inside of the rocket designs,” Alec continued.

“You know what? I will just have you explain this with your parents in the room,” the counselor said.

They were taken to the office along with their families. Cassandra’s parents looked very unhappy. Nana didn’t look as angry but she was not pleased. Alec and Cassandra had to explain exactly what they had done and why. They could explain the what very easily but didn’t have an answer for why.

The director of the camp listened and at the end laughed. She explained that there was always at least one group that didn’t follow directions but that adding paint to the launch of a rocket was a first. She had no problem letting them go and leaving any punishment up to their parents as long as they agreed not to tell any other campers what they did.

\---

Since the camp director wasn’t upset, Nana let Alec off with only a week of extra chores. His siblings all thought it had been hilarious.

Alec and Cassandra hadn’t been able to exchange contact information in all the commotion surrounding their departure from camp. Alec was upset by this but again hoped they would see each other again.  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually managed to write this and get it done in the time frame I hoped. I may not the whole fic done by the end of the month but I manged to get this done. A large part of that is that I only seem to work on this while at work (yay desk where I watch a door and a phone and do practically nothing else). So, writing time is a little erratic along with my schedule.
> 
> So, since each chapter is about five years apart the next chapter is a sad one. Actually the next two are.
> 
> Also I may have de-aged Cassandra a couple of years. I can't figure out the math right now.


	3. Age 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seven months later.
> 
> Life got the best of me and my inspiration got fickle but I finally got this chapter done.
> 
> It is a lot sadder than the last two have been.
> 
> No new siblings this time.

“I’ll be back 4 o'clock to pick you up,” Nana said as Alec got out of the car.

“Cool,” he replied distractedly.

He was excited to finally get to go to the STEM fair. This was going to be the first time that he got to go. Before he had either been too young to go alone or there had been some other event that conflicted.

He had tried to enter a few times but none of his ideas had ever been accepted by the board. It was either “too dangerous” or “not feasible”. It didn’t truly bother him because he doubted he had the time to commit with all his siblings and Nana having been sick more this past winter. The fairs also tended to land on weekends where nobody could go with him. This was the first year that even though nobody could stay Nana had allowed him to get dropped off and explore by himself. He was pretty sure she had always been worried he would get into trouble if left alone in a room with so much science.

He had given her plenty of reasons to believe that over the years.

There wasn’t any sort of check-in for visitors, so Alec was able to go straight in and start looking at all of the projects. The fair was organized by topic and because it was his favorite, he started with the robotics section. There were some really impressive ones like a robotic arm that looked straight out of a superhero movie.

The biology section was right next to the robotics one for some reason Alec couldn’t understand. Alec wasn’t particularly interested in any of them, but he still read or listened to them before moving on to the next section which was physics.

The first two projects were fascinating, and he spent nearly as much time at those booths as he had in the robotics section. But there was something different about the third one. The owner of the booth wasn’t there and for the others like that, he had moved on after finishing reading the boards. But he was drawn to stay at that project.

He was just about to start rereading the board when a girl with a head of red hair bounced into the booth.

“Hi there. If you have any questions feel free to ask,” she said.

He recognized her as soon as she looked at him. And she appeared to recognize him right back.

“Alec!” she exclaimed moving towards him.

“Cassandra!”

They hugged and when they pulled apart, they jumped straight into conversation.

“Do you have a project here?” Cassandra asked. “I didn’t see one with your name.”

“No, I wasn’t able to enter,” he said a bit sadly, “But I still wanted to come see all the cool projects that people did. I now I’m even more excited I came.”

“Me too. I just took a break but if you come back in an hour, I can show you some of my favorite projects,” Cassandra told him.

“Is it all right if I just stay here with you?”

“Absolutely!”

Alec sat with Cassandra at her booth and they talked in-between people coming to look at her project and ask her questions. After a bit more than the hour Cassandra had said they left the booth and Cassandra showed Alec her favorite projects.

One of them was one of the robotics ones that had also caught Alec’s attention his first time through. Another was one about some sort of plant chemistry that Alec would need to do more research on to completely understand. There was also an experiment that neither of them understood the appeal of about otters.

After Cassandra showed him her favorites they had to head back to her booth because she was going to be presenting to the judges. Alec stayed to watch as extra moral support.

The first half went perfectly. Then Cassandra faltered. She kept going passing it off as stumbling over her words. But it happened a second time.

Then the third was worse. Cassandra’s eyes closed and she began to fall. Alec rushed over and managed to catch her before her head hit the ground.

One of the judges ran for help. Another pulled out a cell phone and called someone. A third knelt down next to Alec and began to check Cassandra over.

She didn’t wake up.

The on-site first aid came and did another check of her. They made Alec move back and someone was kind enough to give him a chair.

Cassandra still didn’t wake up.

EMTs came and they took Cassandra with them to the hospital. Alec had to stay because there was no reason for him not to.

The STEM fair continued. It had to. There was too much at stake for so many of the kids for it to stop. Alec didn’t want to stay but he had no way to get home and he couldn’t just call Nana to come get her early. She had too much to do that day. So, Alec found a corner outside the auditorium and waited for her.

When Nana arrived, he got into the car silently. Nana looked at him.

“What happened? You were so excited when I dropped you off,” she said.

Alec burst into tears.

\---

Cassandra’s tumor had come back.

Nobody had told Alec what had happened to Cassandra, so he began looking on the computer that he had gotten from a contest. On the condition that she could use it too, Nana had agreed to get a limited amount of internet for them to use. Alec used all of his to find information about Cassandra. He wasn’t able to online but he was able to find out what hospital she went to using what little information he had. He knew he shouldn’t have but he hacked into the hospital and found Cassandra’s records. And they told him that the same tumor that had led them to meeting all those years ago was back and it wasn’t going to go away as easily this time.

Alec didn’t know what to do.

\---

Alec knew from what he heard from Nana from her own illness and Sissy’s that medical care was really expensive. He knew that there wasn’t much anyone could do when the bills began coming in. And that was wrong.

Alec was going to help.

He got onto his computer and started working.

Hours passed.

Then weeks.

And months.

The night of junior prom (he skipped a grade) he did it. He got into a bank in Iceland.

Neither Nana or Cassandra were going to have to worry about those medical bills anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for coming back and reading this new chapter or reading this for the first time!


	4. Age 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back in just over two weeks! If I can keep this up it will be done next month. I really would like this fic to be finished before event time in June at the latest though.
> 
> Enjoy!

Hardison walked out of the ER and onto the street. He really wished he hadn’t needed to go to the ER but there hadn’t been any other choice. He had been trying to cook and sliced his hand. So, an ambulance ride later he had arrived at the ER and received the stitches his hand needed.

Now he just wanted to go home and order some food so he could eat and pass out. But he needed to call a cab. He got out his phone and began to look in his contacts for one.

He wasn’t paying enough attention to where he was walking and so he bumped into someone. In the scuffle, they both fell to the ground.

“Here let me help you,” he said to the woman he knocked down.

“It’s alright,” she said. Then she paused ad said, “Alec? Is that you?”

He finally looked at the woman and recognized her.

“Cassandra!”

He pulled her to her feet as he stood and hugged her. After a moment she hugged him back.

“I’ve missed you too,” she said quietly.

They hugged for a minute before pulling apart. Hardison looked at Cassandra. She was wearing a uniform that marked her as a custodian for the hospital.

“Are you working?” he asked her.

“I just got off,” Cassandra said. “I was heading home.”

“How about dinner?” he asked.

She looked nervous at that. Even though her medical bills were never very high because he wouldn’t let them be, she probably wasn’t making much as a custodian.

“My treat,” he said. “I did knock you over.”

She smiled, “Alright then. But I’m picking where we go.”

“I can agree to that.”

Cassandra led him to a restaurant that was a few streets away from the hospital. It wasn’t much to look at but the man in the front greeted Cassandra warmly and led them to a table.

“His daughter lives across the hall from me,” Cassandra said. “I feed her cats when she travels, and she introduced me to her parents. They are really friendly people.”

“And they like you,” Hardison replied.

“Yeah.”

Before either of them could say anything else their waiter came by and they ordered. Cassandra tried to only order a small dish but at Hardison’s look, she ordered a full meal.

“So, you work at the hospital now?” he asked after the waiter left.

“Yeah, it lets me be close if something happens,” she said with a gesture to her head.

They hadn’t spoken since the day she had collapsed at the STEM fair, but they had managed to send a few letters and emails. Not many but enough for Hardison to legitimately know about her tumor.

“It’s important work,” Hardison said. “It keeps people from getting even sicker or stops them from getting sick in the first place.”

Cassandra gave him a small smile.

“That it does. What do you do now?”

He didn’t know what to tell her. He couldn’t tell her the truth. Knowing a hacker was not something that Cassandra needed in her life. It could cause her so much trouble. He could barely justify continuing the limited communication they had.

“Freelance programming,” he said. It was close enough.

“That’s nice,” Cassandra said.

They continued to talk until their meals arrived and while they ate. Their talk quickly moved from their lives to the science and math that always bonded them together.

That was until Cassandra spiraling into a concept they had been discussing. She kept talking and talking and after a minute collapsed out of her chair. Hardison saw what was going to happen and caught her. Right after she came back to herself.

“Thanks,” she said.

“I can’t be the cause of you falling to the ground twice in one evening,” he told her.

She smiled, “This one isn’t your fault.”

“Still can’t let you fall again,” Hardison said helping her to stand as he did.

She sat back in her chair as the man from the front came rushing towards their table.

“Cassandra are you alright?” he asked worriedly.

“Yes, I’m fine,” she said with a reassuring smile. “Just my synesthesia getting a little overwhelming.”

“Ah, yes. Sabrina mentioned that. Do you need anything?”

“No, we’re good.”

He went back to his post and Cassandra and Hardison continued eating.

“It’s good to know there are people looking out for you,” Hardison told Cassandra.

“Other than you?” she said teasingly.

“Yes.”

For the rest of their meal, they kept their conversation to lighter topics that wouldn’t disturb Cassandra’s synesthesia. After a bit of convincing Hardison had even gotten Cassandra to order a dessert. When they were done and Hardison had paid they began to walk to Cassandra’s apartment.

When they got there Hardison waited for the cab he had called before they left the restaurant. Cassandra waited with him.

“We should do this again,” she said.

“Next time I’m in town we definitely will,” he said with a sad tone. “I’m moving the day after tomorrow.”

“Oh,” she sighed. Then more brightly she asked, “Where to?”

He debated lying to her. He was moving because there was too much heat on him with the local law enforcement. But it was Cassandra, and nobody had ever connected them and were unlikely to.

“Chicago.”

“Interesting city.”

“There’s a lot of good work for me there.”

“That’s always good.”

At that moment the cab pulled up and Hardison hugged Cassandra.

“We will keep in touch and I will try to visit,” he told her.

They pulled apart and Hardison got into the cab while Cassandra headed up to her apartment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for sticking with me on this. I still love this fic and premise so much and I'm so glad people are reading it.
> 
> Next time a very important introduction.


	5. Age 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back with this after 2 months. It was difficult to figure out how I wanted to do this since it was not in my original plan at all but I finally figured it out and got it done.

After the chaos of dealing with Dubenich and Latimer the team had had to split again. Except this time Hardison and Parker stayed together. They had traveled and learned about their relationship and how they wanted it to be. And now Hardison wanted to share it. The team would find out when they all got back together and there was no way Parker or Nana were ready to meet each other. Hardison contemplated one of his foster siblings but that would end in a Nana disaster.

He kept thinking about it until the day Parker insisted they go to New York City. She had wanted to try and jump off some building. They hadn’t been successful but during the day Hardison had made some quick plans with the one person who he thought he could get Parker to meet.

“Please Parker,” he begged. “I promise Cassandra is really nice. I think you two will get along great.”

“But what if we don’t?” Parker asked. “I don’t want to hurt your relationship with her.”

That was not the answer that he had been expecting. Parker putting his feelings before her own in a situation like this was a first. Her tendencies towards jealously made situations like this difficult.

“I promise even if you two hate each other it won’t affect either relationship. But you won’t hate each other,” he tried soothing her.

“How can you be sure,” Parker asked.

“Because I know both of you,” he said. “And I think even if you don’t have many common interests you will enjoy the company.”

“Okay,” she said in a way that implied she only half believed him.

“Thank you, Parker,” he said and kissed the top of her head.

They met Cassandra at the same restaurant she had taken him to after their crash at the hospital the last time he had been in town. She already had a table when they arrived, so they joined her. Hardison and Parker sat on the opposite side of a rectangular table from Cassandra.

“Hi, Alec,” Cassandra said with her usual bright smile.

“Hey, Cassandra,” he replied.

She then turned to Parker.

“You must be Parker. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” she said.

“It’s nice to meet you too,” Parker responded stiffly.

Parker was sitting as still as she ever did which meant she was super nervous. Cassandra didn’t bat an eye and continued the conversation.

“Alec has never introduced me to any of his family before. I’m glad he finally has,” Cassandra said.

“Hey, that’s not true,” Hardison interrupted. “You’ve met Nana.”

“Yeah, when we broke into a hospital computer and filled a rocket with paint,” Cassandra pointed out. “Those weren’t exactly ideal circumstances.”

Parker was smiling but when Cassandra turned back to her it disappeared.

“Alec told me you two met through work. Are you a hacker or something else?” she asked.

Hardison choked on his drink.

“You know about that?”

“Of course. If I hadn’t figured it out from my disappearing bills, the authorities questioning me about you would have told me everything,” she said matter of factly. “But I don’t care. You seem to help more than you hurt now.”

“Except the real bad guys,” Parker said before clamping her mouth shut.

“Exactly,” Cassandra said.

“But-“ Hardison started.

“No buts,” Cassandra said. “You help those like me and your Nana and get those that hurt people taken care of. You are not going to convince me otherwise.”

She crossed her arms and set her jaw. Hardison knew that there was not going to be any further argument about his chosen career path. But that was not all he was worried about.

“Fine, but let’s not talk about it. I don’t want the authorities to have any reason for coming after you,” he said.

Cassandra’s face softened.

“I can deal with that,” Cassandra said. She then turned to Parker, “Alec has told me a lot about you. Is there anything you want to know about me?”

“How did you and Alec meet?” Parker asked.

She picked up on Cassandra calling him Alec instead of Hardison which he was grateful for. He didn’t feel like trying to explain the change to Cassandra.

Cassandra laughed.

“That’s a funny story,” she said.

And then she told it. Hardison butted in a few times to help but for the most part he let Cassandra tell it. Her telling even got Parker to laugh a few times. Then she moved to their time at summer camp and by the end Parker was laughing hard enough that she almost fell out of her chair.

Then it was Parker’s time to tells stories. They were mostly about the traveling they had been doing but also a few staring the rest of the crew. The one that had Cassandra laughing the most was the story of them turning Nate’s apartment into their base and Eliot cutting a hole in the wall.

Throughout it all they were eating their dinners and deserts. Over the years Cassandra had gotten better about letting Hardison buy her food on the condition he stop trying to buy her stuff for no reason. So, he bought her a lot of food. Mostly it was takeout when they had videocall dinners.

After desert Parker went to the bathroom to wash her hands. Cassandra leaned towards Hardison.

“I like her. I think you are well suited to each other,” she told him.

“I’m glad,” he responded.

“And at some point, I expect you to introduce me to Eliot.”

“Why Eliot?” Hardison asked baffled.

Cassandra leveled a look at him that said ‘you know why’ even though he really didn’t.

“Okay?” he said after a moment.

“Good,” Cassandra said with a smile.

Parker returned from the bathroom and they said their goodbyes. After hugging Hardison, Cassandra turned to Parker.

“Feel free to join our videocalls if you want,” Cassandra told her. “I really would like to get to know you better.”

“I’ll try,” Parker said with a smile.

They all headed out and went their separate ways.

“I like her,” Parker said. “She’s nice and not really normal. But she has her own normal.”

Coming from someone else that would have worried Hardison, but from Parker it was high praise.

“Good,” he said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only one more chapter left! I have zero idea when I will write it because I'm going to be shifting into prompt month stuff soon. But I can't wait to have this fic finished.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank for reading! Comments and kudos are always welcome.
> 
> (you can find me on tumblr at theredshirtsarecoming)


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